HAVING recently returned from Palm Desert in California, I am sure you can all imagine how delighted I am to be back in the UK!

With temperatures of 106 degrees every day, much of the past fortnight has been spent cruising around in the sun with the roof of the Ford Mustang well and truly down.

I even rented a Harley Davidson for a day or two to add a little bit of excitement to proceedings and naturally a lot of time was spent on the golf course.

None of this, however, quite compares to what a UK summer has to offer. Fish and chips, ice cream vans, daytrips to the seaside, trips to caravan parks (couldn’t resist that one) and of course Twenty20 cricket.

Starting on Wednesday 27th May with an ICC Twenty20 World Cup warm-up match between New Zealand and Ireland, Derbyshire are hosting seven Twenty20 matches between now and the end of June.

Twenty20 has become by far the most popular form of the game since its inauguration in 2003 and with balls flying out of the park, exciting run chases and terrific atmospheres around the land, it isn’t difficult to see why.

I believe that the reason for the short form’s popularity is that it appeals to everybody. Few sports fans can fail to be entertained by a ball being smashed out of the park time and time again. Although I personally love it, I would accept that mainstream cricket is far more of an acquired taste.

With the likes of Brendan McCullum, Jessie Ryder and Jacob Oram in town for that international opener, a more potentially explosive start to the Twenty20 season we could not wish for at the County Ground.

The Friday night visit from Nottinghamshire, which takes place two days later, has become an established annual event which has attracted increasingly sizeable crowds with each passing year since 2005.

As somebody who has watched a lot of cricket at the County Ground for many years, it really is great to see the place buzzing for these occasions and I am glad to be able to report that measures have been put into place this year to lessen the congestion around the ground.

The off field team at the County Ground then have just one day to up sticks and move the operation to Queen’s Park, Chesterfield, for what is likely to be an equally sizeable crowd for the visit of Yorkshire Carnegie.

The beauty of the setting for cricket at Queen’s Park is clear and I am delighted that we have been able to grace the venue with such a high profile fixture.

When we returned to our northern outpost for a five-day festival in 2006, I’m not sure I myself would have truly believed that taking Twenty20 there would be possible. Thanks to the ambition of the club and the dedication of the staff this is now possible and it should again be a terrific day.

The 11-run defeat in the corresponding fixture last season was a disappointment but nevertheless an entertaining match. There is always a little bit of extra feeling from Derbyshire teams when we take on Yorkshire so it would be terrific to reverse that result this time. I am sure our Head of Cricket John Morris will agree.

A further floodlit Twenty20 against two time winners Leicestershire Foxes follows before the competition takes a break for the duration of the international tournament.

When it returns, we have the pleasure of hosting the World Champion England Women’s team for a Twenty20 International against Australia prior to our match against Lancashire on Thursday 25th June.

We have hosted the England women a couple of times before and any gents out there who like to scoff at ladies sport should seriously come and watch these girls in action. They are good and as for competitive spirit; put it this way, I wouldn’t go out there with bat in hand to face them for all the tea and china!

Some readers may already be aware that 2009 will be the last year of the current Twenty20 Cup format. From 2010 onwards, there will be more of it than ever before.

Those who work hard behind the scenes to sell all aspects of Twenty20 have often wondered how much more successful they could be was it not all crammed into such a tight schedule of fixtures.

Next year they will find out as the current Twenty20 Cup fixtures will be played on Friday nights throughout the second half of the season; from July through to September.

Not only will spreading the fixtures out make them more sellable, this also aids in the demystification of the county season. People will come to know that Friday night means Twenty20. That can only be a good thing for the sport.

The midsummer, traditional Twenty20 slot will then be taken over by a new P20 League, inspired by the success of the Indian Premier League competition.

The final details of this, for example how many overseas players per county, are yet to be ironed out. However, it is all very exciting and a top three finish in our Twenty20 Cup group this season will ensure us a place in the potentially lucrative top division of that competition in 2010.

The stakes are high and the entertainment sure to be rich. Let battle commence.